


What Tony Got For Christmas

by TheRedGlass



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Christmas proposal, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Ficlet, M/M, Prompt Fill, Sort of anyway, i was inspired by a thing on tumblr, proposal, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 07:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7564900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedGlass/pseuds/TheRedGlass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Steve is a little shit and Tony gets the best Christmas surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Tony Got For Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> I'm transferring all my little tumblr fics here in case of catastrophe, so please don't mind all the little ficlets about to pop up.
> 
> This story in particular was inspired by [brandnewfashion's](http://brandnewfashion.tumblr.com) ask: "also also ALSO i just saw this post about christmas aus so imagine it's christmas morning and everyone's in the living room opening presents and tony opens his present from steve and it's a box in a box... in another box... in another box... until it's like, 20 minutes later and there are 20 different sized boxes at tony's feet but the box in his hand is a RING BOX and he opens it but nothing's in it so he turns to ask steve wtf is going on and steve's there on one knee with a ring in his hand", referencing a list of Christmas AUs by [blakesmilitia](http://blakesmilitia.tumblr.com).

Christmas morning finds the Avengers sprawled throughout the largest sitting room in Stark Tower in their pajamas, balancing plates heaped with breakfast food on their laps or the furniture or whoever happens to be closest, the pleasant murmur of chatter and laughter dancing in the air while an incredibly realistic computer rendered image of a yule log crackles away cozily in a digital fireplace, aided in its illusion by a cleverly placed and disguised heating element. Pepper and Sam, up like children at the very crack of dawn to do all the cooking, admire their handiwork from their bar stools where they sip coffee.

Tony, who shows signs of not having slept at all, perches on the arm of a couch and tells a story of a crazy Christmas past, replete with wild arm gestures and facial expressions. “I swear,” he says. “They couldn’t get the deer out of the mall for two days, until they finally managed to corner it in a Victoria’s Secret.”

Steve is laughing so hard he looks like he’s about to cry, half reclined on the floor with his back propped against the bottom half of the oversize, overstuffed armchair Thor has claimed like a throne. Steve’s laughter gives Tony new life the way it always does, and his grin widens and he gazes down at the other man with an adoration normally reserved for a successful test of his latest creative effort.

Thor chuckles heartily as well while Bruce rolls his eyes from where he’s perched on an ottoman with tea. Natasha smirks from her place sprawled in Clint’s lap on the other end of the couch from where Tony sits.

With the food more or less consumed, Pepper looks like she can’t contain herself any more and she claps her hands together and announces, “Presents!”

There is a mad scramble to gather the loot from under the tree, and Pepper sorts the chaos by assigning Bruce as Santa and he methodically begins to pass around the assortment of wrapped boxes and gift bags, each bearing the hallmark of its giver in its wrappings or lack thereof.

There are oohs and ahhs at everyone’s kindness and the clear thought they’ve put into each gift. With one notable exception. Clint’s gifts are so lovably off the mark and clearly last minute that no one can even pretend to be exasperated or anything other than amused.

Bruce brings out the last gift, an enormous box wrapped in obnoxious patriotic print wrapping paper that had been tucked far back behind the eight foot Christmas tree Tony had procured and decorated with old circuits and motherboards alongside Pepper’s detailed garland and delicate glass ornaments. “To Tony from Steve,” he reads off the tag, handing off the box to Tony who sets it on the floor in front of him because it takes up about half the couch.

“Nice wrapping paper,” Tony says cheekily as he tears into it.

“Thanks, I used the rest of the roll that you used for my birthday presents,” Steve says.

Tony gives him a sassy grin - a grin that slides into a puzzled sort of bemusement as he opens the box to find another box inside, this one wrapped in red and yellow tissue paper. “What’s the deal here, Rogers?” he asks. “Reviving one of your old timey traditions or something?”

“Hilarious.”

Tony opens the second box…to find a third box, wrapped in reindeer patterned paper. And inside the third box is a fourth, and then a fifth, and then a sixth. “You realize the point of presents,” Tony says. “Is to actually include a tangible gift on the inside.”

“Just keep unwrapping, Stark,” Steve says with a trace of amusement.

So Tony keeps going, and the number of boxes hits the the double digits even as they continue to get smaller and smaller.

Natasha, being Natasha, realizes what’s happening about a minute and a half before everyone else. She straightens up a little suddenly, going subtly tense and expectant and Clint frowns as she shifts in his lap, knowing her well enough to recognize the slight change. “What’s-” he starts to say, before she cuts him off with a quick elbow to the ribs and he’s mouthing ‘ow’ at her and looking slightly offended. She shakes her head and widens her eyes, giving him the patented look that tells him to be quiet and just watch.

Tony dutifully, humorlessly opens a small green box to find a smaller red box inside, and then when he opens the red box there is only a tiny blue velvet box too small to contain any other box.

It’s a ring box.

He opens it with a curious frown, and finds it empty. “Cap, what the f-” he starts to say, but then he looks up from the box and Steve has somehow silently crossed the expanse of carpet to get down on one knee in front of Tony, and Tony suddenly can’t say anything at all, his mouth frozen open around the words he meant to say.

Steve swallows, his face flickering between excited and nervous and he can’t quite stay still, not shaking but humming with energy as he holds up a wide platinum band with a dark red stone set in the middle. “Tony, would you, uh,” he says, and then suddenly he’s at a loss for words too, and the very air in the room is taut with anticipation and everyone knows what’s happening but Tony can’t even blink to react, as though he needs the rest of the words to make it really real.

And it takes a minute, but finally Steve does find the words even if they come out as little more than a whisper. “Will, you, uh, marry me?” he says, his cheeks flushing pink as his breath catches in his throat and he thinks he might die waiting for an answer.

It takes another minute for it all to register in his brain which seems to boot like a slow computer but when the system finishes processing, Tony’s heart feels like a loose balloon rocketing skyward and he’s diving through the boxes and wrapping paper to cup Steve’s jaw with both hands and press their lips together with a desperate urgency, and he pauses just for a moment to murmur, “Duh.”

Steve can’t even hear the hysterical cheering from their teammates as he fumbles blindly to slip the ring on Tony’s finger.


End file.
